When life hands you lemons, you make lemonade, right? Right. What about when life starts pelting you with lemons like an automated tennis ball throwing machine? That’s when it’s time to call in for back up.

Awaken the Rebel is Shereen Thor’s brainchild that helps individuals approach their struggles in a more manageable manner and teaches clients how to turn those challenges into a positive force. She’s warm, energetic, and although she doesn’t exactly embrace the title “life coach”, she does fall somewhere in between a trainer and a therapist. I wanted to better understand who makes a good candidate for Shereen’s services and how a life coach can be helpful.

What do you do as a life coach?

The word life coach just seems so cheesy lol, but honestly it’s a pretty good label. If you think about a coach for a soccer team, they are on the outside of the field so they can help the players see their blind spots and room for improvement. They have a different vantage point and can basically help the teammate achieve a win more effectively. This is essentially what I do for my clients in their lives.

They come to me with a particular objective in mind whether that’s starting a business or achieving a relationship goal…and I help them get there by becoming their ally and guide.

Coaching is different than therapy in the sense that it tends to take a more spiritual approach. I believe my clients are the experts in their own lives and that they are perfect whole and complete just as they are. Michelangelo was asked how he creates these amazing sculptures and he answered, “I see the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.

On an invisible level, this is what I do for my clients.

What type of people do you help?

I mostly help people who are unhappy in their office jobs to Awaken to their Highest Calling and build a badass business and lifestyle they love.

What chain of events led you to become a life coach?

I was on the verge of turning 25 and felt utterly disenchanted with my own life. I remember thinking, “I followed all the rules, got a degree, got the job, even got the house…and I feel like THIS?!”

It was in that moment that I realized that following the rules imposed upon us by society doesn’t necessarily lead to happiness. So I went to my first personal development seminar, quit a masters degree program and opted to start doing stand up comedy.

That was the start of my own rebellion towards the direction of my dreams. As I was doing comedy I continued taking personal development classes and basically became an inspiration junkie. I got certified as a life coach and in Neuro Linguistic Programming.

While I was doing all this I started to gain notoriety in comedy and got scouted by MTV and E! I then realized that I was more interested in helping people have the awakening and leading them to their bliss than I was interested in making people laugh.

So I quit comedy & founded Awaken The Rebel, a movement that helps people to stop settling for less and rebel into the direction of their dreams. It is very satisfying work, and through it I have answered my highest calling. And that’s the story of how I became a life coach.

What are signs that someone needs a life coach?

Great question. Some signs are that they are feeling like life hasn’t chopped up to all they hoped it would be. They struggle with relationships and maintaining healthy connection. They feel dread when they wake up for work. They struggle with money consistently. They don’t feel like they have a voice. They don’t feel supported in their lives by their friends or family. This list could go on and on, but you get the point.

What is the most popular reason people seek your professional guidance?

They dislike working for someone else and wish they could be doing more meaningful work.

What is your process for helping these people?

I take them through a 5 step process from point A which is figuring out what their highest calling is, to point B which is launching their own service based business or movement that is their soul’s expression of their work in the world. Here are the steps:

Awaken to your purpose

Your Hero’s Journey

Connect with your Clients

Become the CEO of your dreams

Launch your movement

What are a few simple things people can do right now to get themselves on the right path?

Start listening to themselves over others. That is the BIGGEST and most important step. One step further and equally important is to take action on what that voice is telling them. And if they REALLY want to solidify this change, they will illicit support in the form of a coach or a like-minded individual who is on the same path.

What do you think holds most people back from achieving success? How do they over come it?

What holds most people back from achieving success is fear. Fear of success, fear of failure, fear of knowing themselves, fear of facing uncomfortable emotions, fear of trusting themselves, fear they will look stupid, fear they won’t look good, fear they won’t be right and the list goes on.

The only way to overcome fear is to grab your balls and do it anyway 😉

Whatever it takes for you to do this, whether that’s hiring a coach or having an accountability partner…it is the single most important factor to your soul’s satisfaction is your willingness to move forward even if you are uncertain of where that will take you.

Tell us about a success story.

I have a client who found me on twitter. He was hating his job and dreamed of being a life coach. He was inspired by my no bullshit style of coaching and ended up joining my rebel forever membership. I got to know him and be on his path. He then decided to fly out to my annual live event Awaken The Rebel Live. He had a huge awakening similar to the one I had when I attended my first personal development seminar. He then went on my Rebel Retreat and had ANOTHER transformational experience where he broke up with a woman who wasn’t really supporting him on his journey. He then coached with me one on one and started to move toward that elusive dream of becoming a coach. He started to build a team. Together we discussed who he is and developed his brand and movement. He now is the founder of Bold Without Apology coaching and is the leader of his team. One year later he flew out to my annual event again, but this time with his team members in tow. So they now have their own awakenings and are stepping into their power as a result of his leadership.

This is the stuff that gets me juiced. He started by feeling disgruntled and disappointed, hired a coach, ditched old patterns and people that didn’t support where he was growing into, and founded a badass movement. That’s pretty much how it all happens in a nutshell.

As you can see the consistent theme with him is that he continued with the coaching. Often times it’s like hiring a personal trainer for your physical health. You need to pay money for it so that you have skin in the game. You need someone to hold you accountable and help you workout better than you would alone.

It’s the same with coaching, you need to have skin in the game, you need to be accountable to stay consistent and get results, and you need a coach or mentor who can guide you towards the life that you want to create.